


magnification, and other ways to concentrate light

by psychicdamager (orphan_account)



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: 1970s, Ass Play, Coming Out, Exhibitionism, Multi, Period-Typical Homophobia, Sexual Repression, i read the 70s teen titans comics and immediately responded like a wild animal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:40:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23310280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/psychicdamager
Summary: “No,” Roy says, very quickly. “I’m into chicks. You know that.” He moves his hand away.=The 1970s may have been the time for sexual experimentation, but Dick Grayson finds out that there are limits, particularly when self-imposed.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Roy Harper, Garth (DCU)/Dick Grayson, Garth/Dick Grayson/Roy Harper/Donna Troy/Wally West, Robin/Speedy
Comments: 23
Kudos: 74





	magnification, and other ways to concentrate light

**Author's Note:**

> i'm back after 3 years without writing anything. i'm going to try and make this a multi-chaptered work, but i have no idea how long or short it will end up.
> 
> additionally, i started writing this as straight up nasty porn and then it grew legs and sexual repression and got away from me. wish i could say that this was related to a particular comic but it truly did come to me reading the old 70s teen titans comics and laughing about how much they all flirted. lost count of how many times they called each other ' baby'. god bless.

“Ow,” Dick says, for the third time in as many minutes.

Garth jerks back instantly, and Dick sighs as he loosens his hold on Dick’s jaw.

“Sorry!” Garth yelps, “I – um – do you want to stop?”

“No,” Dick soothes, because Gar is bright red from the neck up, “But when I said ‘gentle’ the first time I meant by human standards, not Atlantean.”

Garth looks absolutely mortified; even the tips of his ears are bright red. Dick decides to take pity on him.

“Look,” Dick mollifies, “How about you just keep your hands by your sides, and I’ll do the work.”

“What, you out of control already, waterboy?” Speedy sneers. Or tries to. It comes out high-pitched as Wally worries at his neck where they’re sprawled together on the couch.

“Roy,” Donna snaps. Her hand fists in his hair, pulling his head back against the cushions. Roy squeezes his eyes shut; throat working. _Jeez,_ Dick thinks. Wally seems to be thinking the same thing, looking up at Donna as though for direction.

“Oh,” Garth breathes, and Donna looks up at the noise. She’s flushed, tank sliding off one shoulder, and there’s no strap underneath it. _She’s got no bra on,_ Dick thinks. And then realises he’s staring.

He looks at her face, and she’s staring right back at him, eyebrow quirked knowingly. Dick grins at her. His ribs are still a little tender from their earlier spar.

Donna looks away first, shaking her head a little.

Seconds later, she brushes two fingers over Roy’s lip before pushing them in, and Dick has to look away or he’s gonna sprint over there to lick around them.

“Just ignore him,” Dick says, more calmly than he feels, and boldly places his hand on Garth’s knee. Garth looks from his hand to Dick’s face, and he’s redder than before, if that’s possible. It’s pretty cute.

Garth’s eyes are all round, mouth bitten red and wet, and Dick may have had some ulterior motives when he suggested that Gar could practice kissing with him. Though he’s probably not the only one with some hidden agenda if the panting from the sofa is proof of anything.

Dick scoots closer to Garth, realising he has to look up at him, even sitting down. It makes him flush.

Dick gets up on his knees and sits on his heels, which will get uncomfortable fast but puts their faces at equal level. “Okay?” he asks.

Garth nods, and then says, “I’m cool,” very quietly. He’s sitting on his thumbs, and knowing how much Garth is trying makes something liquid and warm coil in his chest. Dick smiles at him again as he smooths his hands through Garth’s curls, using it as an excuse to lean in, further and further until their noses are almost touching.

“Take four,” Dick says, and then they’re kissing.

Garth is hesitant – he was the first three times, and Dick puts it down to inexperience and nerves, but he’s a fast learner. He chases Dick’s mouth and nips at his lower lip after Dick pulls at his. It’s nice. More than nice, actually. Dick tries his best to keep it chaste and close-mouthed, but he can’t help sliding his bare palms from Garth’s shoulders to his jaw over and over, or tangling his fingers in the short hair at the back of his head.

Garth’s mouth is just as soft as it looks. Dick can’t seem to stop worrying at it with his teeth or pushing too hard, unaided by how Garth whines when Dick pulls on his lower lip.

Dick breaks the kiss, panting, and barely has enough time to blink his eyes open before Garth is on him, one strong arm around his waist and the other at the back of his head; hauling him in.

It’s slick, hot, and messy, and Dick can’t fucking _move_ or squirm away, which, absurdly, is making him dizzier. All he can do is cling on and hope that Gar doesn’t accidentally squeeze him hard enough to break his ribs.

He’s embarrassingly hot just from this: swollen and leaking in his workout shorts, and he’s not even being touched. Up on his knees like this there’s no way to hide it either; his shorts are cut high and tight to allow for flips and splits. The thought of Roy or Wally or Donna seeing him like this makes him moan against Gar’s mouth and squirm even closer before he can think about what he’s doing.

This way, their chests are pressed tight together, which is both better and worse. Better because Gar is exactly as broad and solid and warm as Dick thought he would be, and worse because it’s driving Dick even crazier. Even his nipples are aching.

Gar makes this funny rumbling noise at Dick’s squirming; breaking the kiss. Dick blearily tries to chase him, and then gasps when he gets his jaw nipped at.

“Oh, that’s good Gar, that’s – that’s good,” Dick mumbles breathily. Gar makes that rumbling noise again, against his throat this time. It makes something in Dick’s abdomen seize and his cock jump.

With his head tipped - _forced_ at this angle while Garth bites and licks at him, there’s nothing else to look at but Roy and Donna and Wally.

Over on the couch, Roy and Wally seem to have progressed somewhat farther than messing around. Roy is crowded up against the arm of the sofa, Wally all but on top of him. Their legs are intertwined, and as Dick watches, Wally moves, his thigh prying Roy’s open, and Roy’s head thunks back against the armrest. The noise that he makes – a long, unbroken whine – makes Dick dizzy and his breath catch.

“Wally,” Roy chokes out. His eyes are scrunched shut, mouth alternately open to pant and bitten closed when Wally rocks down onto him. Dick has to close his eyes, but that doesn’t shut out all the quiet noises Roy is making: the same high breathy note over and over. Rhythmically, he realises. Every time their groins rub. He shivers.

Garth moans in his ear and grabs his waist in his giant, bone-crushing hands, squeezing and tugging Dick up and across his thighs. “Oh,” Dick says dumbly. It never really feels like Garth is all that much bigger than him in the field, but he’s all too aware of it now. Straddling Garth’s lap causes a noticeable burn in his inner thighs as he accommodates to the stretch, even if it does put Dick’s head a little higher than Gar’s.

“You’re a quick learner,” Dick jokes, but it comes out all wrong because he’s so _hard_ and he really wants Garth to touch him all over, or to crawl in-between Roy and Wally and let Donna push her fingers in his mouth, or both at the same time. His legs really are forced ridiculously far apart over Garth’s thighs. He’s so open. God, he’s going to want to sneak back to his room and finger himself after this. Dick hasn’t played with his hole that much, but this is really making him want that stretch, that dirty fullness. _There’s something wrong with me_ , Dick thinks. Surely other guys don’t have the same thoughts - besides Johnny, who sat next to Dick in his psychology course. Dick had been casing a group of hippie drug dealers on campus from the roof of the science building. They’d been operating through the dorms, and he’d been hoping for a quick lead. Nothing had been happening. The dorm building was a dead loss. So far he’d only seen people hooking up or agonising over term papers. Dick was just considering going back down to the library and hitting the books when he caught a glimpse of movement in his binoculars. It turned out to be Johnny all laid out, screwing his fingers into himself like he’d die if he didn’t. It had gotten Dick so excited he’d had to bail back to his dorm and take a very long shower. He’d done it to himself the very next day, feeling panicked and then turned on and then panicked from being turned on and then turned on from being panicked.

He liked it so much he’d striped himself from groin to chin with spunk.

He moved seats the next day.

Garth doesn’t say anything, just looks at him with his big dark eyes, his - _Jesus -_ red, wet mouth. “Huh?” Dick says, getting antsy and trying to play it off. He slings both arms around Garth’s neck, tosses his hair like a dame. Geez, he must look like bad porn. He kind of likes it. A lot.

“ _Yeah_ , baby,” Roy crows. “Get _on_ him.” Dick doesn’t think it’s directed towards him at first, until Garth hisses, “Shut _up_ Roy,” over his shoulder. Bizarrely, Roy’s attention – knowing that Roy’s looking at him – makes him blush harder and hotter than he has all evening.

He still has to summon some kind of rightful indignation, though. It’s only proper.

“Roy,” Dick says, twisting over Garth’s thighs to glare at him, “Leave it, will you? 

“ _Yes_ , Gar, Jesus,” Roy pants, “Grab his fucking ass, squeeze it – Oh _fuck_ yeah.”

Dick opens his mouth to tell his hot, flushed, gasping-for-it coworker/tentative friend to _seriously shut up right now_ when Garth slides both hands off his waist and grabs both cheeks of his ass with his massive hands. Instead he lets out a fervent, “Yeah, _please_ ,” and rolls his hips back into that grip. His head falls forward against Gar’s shoulder as his back arches, pushing his ass up and letting Gar’s hands glide closer to his cleft.

They both moan. God, Dick is so hard. His cock is wet and flexing, trapped in his dumb little shorts.

Roy moans. “Oh my _God. Oh_ my _God._ He likes it, he fucking _loves it_.” Dick’s face is so hot where it’s hidden in Garth’s chest. He slides his knees further apart, wanting to be bent further over, held more open, _looked at._ God, he’s sweating. Gar’s chest is heaving under his own.

Dick says, “Gar,” possibly because it’s the only thing he can say right now, and Gar’s hands slide down until they’re at the hem of his shorts, cupping the underside of his ass. And then, perfectly awfully, he presses up and releases, making Dick’s ass jiggle. It’s fucking _dirty,_ a cheap little move that Dick’s only seen when he’s had to case particular kinds of clubs in Gotham’s seedier areas.

He surges up and kisses Gar. He doesn’t know what he wants. He wants to get off. He wants to come so bad. He doesn’t want Gar to ever stop playing with his ass. He wants to rub off against Gar’s firm torso. He doesn’t want to get out of the slutty pose he’s put himself in - knees spread, back arched, ass fucking _open_ and ready for it. He can hear Roy saying something but it’s too much. He wants too much. They’re looking at him. He knows they are. Especially _Roy_ \- looking at him and wanting him.

Dick hopes that isn’t a bad thought to have - you aren’t supposed to think about other people while you’re messing around with someone. But they’re all here, all in this room together, so the rules have to be different, right?

Roy’s panting is loud. Dick can hear Wally as well - he almost sounds like he’s purring. Then Gar’s tongue pushes into his mouth and he gets lost in the sensation of licking and chasing Gar’s tongue and - _oh -_ getting his tongue sucked on in sweet little pulses. Gar’s moved back to petting him, his big warm hands pressing firmly down his chest, his back, up into his hair and gripping his jaw - holding him still and open so Gar can flick his tongue against the sensitive roof of his mouth.

He gets a little loose, focused on the mouth against his, the soothing strokes over his body, and the hot pulse between his thighs that he jumps a little when Roy cries out.

Dick looks over his shoulder, giving Gar the perfect opportunity to worry at his neck. Donna is smirking down at Roy; sweating, bright red and shirtless - sat back on his heels with her over his thighs.

As he watches, Wally presses himself against Roy’s back, biting a smile into his shoulder, and then dips his hand down into Roy’s sweats. Dick bites his lip. He looks…Dick has heard a lot of girls - including Donna - call guys dreamy. He’s doesn’t think that that’s a name for Roy. Roy doesn’t have that perfectly coiffed style, nor grace, nor relaxed, easy charm. He’s sharp. Sharp in a lot of ways, like the twist of his mouth after he looses a shot.

He doesn’t look sharp right now.

Gar bites his earlobe - a sweet nip that makes his nerves sing - and Dick hears himself make a throaty noise.

“You okay?” Gar asks. 

“Sure I am,” Dick smiles.

Gar looks at him with his big (freaky) purple doe eyes and nods. He slides his hand tentatively under Dick’s workout tank so it’s resting on his abdomen. Dick bites his lip. That hand is approximately five inches from where he wants it to be. “Is this okay?” Gar asks, again.

“Yes,” Dick blurts, “Whatever you want,” and then Gar moans but the sound is mostly caught between their mouths because he leant in before Dick had even finished speaking.

Gar’s hand travels up his chest and plucks, almost delicately, at his nipple. It feels amazing. Dick’s hips mindlessly pump up against Gar’s, searching for any kind of pressure.

“ _Baby,”_ Dick hears himself say against Gar’s mouth. It makes Gar gasp and kiss him harder, and that’s interesting. He peels himself out of his tank, briefly separating their mouths before they surge back together.

Gar licks firmly into Dick - forcing him wider open, pressing his tongue down under the invasion - before he mouths a wet line down Dick’s throat, his sternum, before sucking in pulses over Dick’s left nipple.

Dick’s thighs try to press together. _Oh god_ , he thinks. Each wet, semi-brutal suck is so good. He’s dripping inside the shorts. He wants to be naked. He wants _both_ of them to be naked.

Gar hums against his nipple, making Dick cry out, before he licks his way over to nibble at the right one. Dick becomes suddenly, awfully aware that this might be enough to make him cream his shorts. Gar’s mouth is soaking and plush and hot, until he nips - just a little - and sparks zing under Dick’s skin. His big hands are gripping Dick; one on the curve of his back, the other holding his waist gently but firmly. Dick can’t get _away._ His hands are so much larger that Dick’s. His fingers - Dick swallows - are thicker and longer.

Dick can feel the slickness crawling up his slit to blurt out into his shorts. How can he ask for that? _Hey buddy, you’ve made me so hard I’ll die unless you get me wet and let me sit on your hand. Or cock. I’m not picky!_

And then Gar pulls off his own shirt and slides both hands down to grab Dick’s ass over the shorts and _spread_. Dick yells and grinds his hips back, willing Gar’s hand to just glide into his cleft. _C’mon,_ he thinks, _Try to finger me. Try to get in me._

_“Gar,”_ Dick breathes, right as Donna hisses, “ _Yes,”_ behind him. The knowledge that his friends are _right there_ potentially watching him beg physically to be stuffed full makes his stomach flip over.

Gar licks the sensitive hollow of his throat, his jaw, and back into his mouth. Dick kisses back messily - hungrily. Gar presses against him, sucks on his tongue, and then pulls back with a final chaste press. “You’re beautiful,” he says, and beams. Dick can’t help but smile back despite the fact his face probably isn’t quite doing what he wants it to. It’s the kind of simple compliment that men don’t give men - or women give men. Dick’s never been called beautiful before. It’s cute. It’s also really hot, mostly because they’re plastered together from chest to groin and Gar’s cock is pushing into the crease of his hip, rubbing alongside his shaft.

Dick can’t help rocking forward. It makes a pretty sight; Gar’s mouth parts and his eyes go heavy lidded. His grip also tightens marginally on Dick’s ass, pulling him in closer, tighter. Gar bites his lip, looks down at where they’re pressed together and then leans in and bitesDick’s lip.

“You guys look so hot together,” Wally says.

“Yeah,” Roy pants, “Dick, you - ah - I - _please-_ ” He cuts off into a stilted cry, mixing with Donna’s delighted giggle.

“ _Roy_ ,” Dick moans into Gar’s mouth, which admittedly would not be a good move in any other situation, but, again, the rules seem to be very different in this scenario. Also Dick _likes_ Roy; he’s smart and funny and down-to-earth and kind of rough around the edges in a way Dick isn’t accustomed to. He also caught Dick’s eye a few weekends ago after rounding up H.I.V.E goons, smiling wildly. The way the evening sunlight caught him made something warm in Dick’s chest expand until he felt a little dizzy. The feeling endured the whole ride back to the tower, where Roy’s shoulder occasionally bumped against his in the cramped backseat.

“Aw,” Gar hums, “What’s the skinny?” It embarrassingly takes Dick a second to realise Gar isn’t talking to him.

“We’re having a _really_ good time,” Donna drawls, “Aren’t we?”

“You know it, baby,” Dick replies, looking back at her over his shoulder. She laughs at him delightedly, her nose crinkling. Wally snickers, then thumbs over her nipples. Donna’s eyes narrow and her mouth drops open, and then - _oh_ \- she grabs Wally’s head and drags his mouth to her clothed chest.

Gar makes a low sound. Dick squirms a little, glancing away from Donna and Wally.

He catches Roy’s gaze.

Well, he catches Roy looking at him. Looking at Gar’s hands gripping the meat of his ass. Dick experiences a deeply confusing sensation; the bottom of his stomach drops out like he’s on a rollercoaster and, simultaneously, the hot tingling in his cock turns into the deep, desperate itch that immediately premeditates him spilling. His eyes slam shut. Dick moans, long and low, and shallowly ruts against Gar’s abs. He wants to _come._ It’s only the thought of losing it inside his shorts in front of all of his friends before anyone else does that holds him back.

Dick sucks his lower lip into his mouth and tries to still the trembling in his thighs. Gar pets at him idly, stroking a hand up over his ass to the small of his back and nosing at his profile. “Did you come?” he whispers in Dick’s ear. _Oh God,_ Dick thinks, _not helping._

“No,” he pants out, “No, I’m cool.”

“Okay,” Gar says, “But you know I want to you to, right? Like, that’s my goal here. Just in case you were confused, Virgin Wonder.”

Dick thumps him on the arm, both weakly and sweatily. “ _I_ was teaching _you_ to kiss! You lied to me! Clearly you’ve messed around before.”

“Hmm,” Gar hums, “Not with a human male. I wanted to learn. You’re considerably more fragile than an Atlantean.”

“Way to hit a guy when he’s down,” Dick laughs. Gar snorts.

“Feels to me like you’re more up than down.”

“Can it,” Dick says, and slaps Gar on the bicep again. He’s so hard. He really just wants to lay his head on Gar’s shoulder and grind until he messes up his shorts.

Gar snorts and shifts against him. “Hey Speedy,” he calls over Dick’s shoulder, “You’re drooling. Looks like you’re about to pop. You really want this, huh?” He jiggles Dick’s ass again, then spreads him wide enough through the shorts that it pulls on Dick’s hole; opens him up a little.

“Haa,” Dick says, intelligently. His scalp prickles with heat, spreading and diffusing to an awareness of the sweat at his lower back, behind his knees.

Everything else narrows down to the barely-there pressure on his rim. He’s making little high noises, mouthing wetly at Gar’s jaw, licking the side of his mouth. _Fuck me. Stuff your fingers in me. Fill me up_ , he thinks. _Please._

_“_ Ro-Dick,” Roy blurts. “O-oh jesus.” He sounds like he’s talking at gunpoint, if not for Wally snickering and making low, sweet sounds. Dick realises he’s clawing at Gar’s shoulders. His knuckles pop when he lets go; fingertips tingling when the blood rushes in.

Donna sing-songs, “You can look, but you can’t touch, can you Roy?” Wally laughs.

“Roy,” Gar says, “Check this out.” And then he pulls the hem of Dick’s shorts up so the fabric rides in-between his cheeks, exposing the lower curve of his ass. It’s pressure right where he wants it. His legs shake. And then Gar’s running fingers down his crease and jabbing his thick fingers right at his hole. Dick sobs; there’s a roaring in his ears; his hole flexing, twitching, trying to pull Gar’s fingers in, even through the fabric.

“ _Baby,”_ he wails, trying to kiss Gar but only really succeeding in letting him jam his tongue in his mouth. “Yeah, baby,” he repeats, and Gar grinds three fingers in a tight circle right up against him, forcing his hole to spread through the fabric, moaning back into his mouth, and then everything narrows down to the tickle in the head of this cock and he’s coming, trapped in his shorts, dripping spunk into his pubic hair.

He slumps against Gar; his legs giving out. He’s shaking. His cock jumps as he rides out the aftershocks. “Gee wiz,” he mumbles, lifting his head from Gar’s shoulder to swipe the saliva from his chin. Gar kisses his cheek, running his hands up and down his flanks, occasionally squeezing roughly.

“That was so hot,” he hisses, “So, so hot, Dick.” Gar licks into his slack mouth, then reaches down and grips his spent cock. Dick yelps and jumps, oversensitive.

“Me-ow,” Donna giggles. Dick feels like he’s melting, but he’s still acutely aware that Gar is still hot and thick, twitching in the crease of his hip. Maybe Gar will let him play with it. He perks up when Gar wriggles against him, eager to reciprocate.

“Hey,” Gar says, already lifting Dick off his lap, “Move over, I gotta go to the sink.”

“Mm?” Dick says, confused, “Okay.” He feels cold as Gar moves away from him, and also increasingly sticky. Is it uncool for him to put his tank back on? He tugs his wet shorts out of his crease, watching Gar pad out of sight to the kitchen. The tap comes on - _He’s hydrating,_ Dick realises. It’s been a long time since Donna and Dick encouraged him out of the bath, asking if he’d like to watch a movie with the team. 

The made-for-TV movie is still running, completely ignored. The incriminating bottle is on the floor, abandoned after a particularly fateful spin.

Dick feels uncertain and a little embarrassed for the first time since Donna had laughed and pressed a kiss to the side of his mouth earlier in the evening. He kind of wishes he hadn’t been the first to come.

The emergency alarm goes off.

Everyone scrambles - Donna, Wally and Roy break apart. Garth appears in the doorway with water streaming from his dripping hair. It’s all a bit of a blur after that, punctuated largely by the feeling of cramming a jock on over his wet dick, and then shoving armoured shorts on top of that.

Later, when they all arrive back at base, they scrub off in the showers in exhausted silence, and Dick, finally free of the stink of river water, asphalt grit, rotten garbage, and, possibly, urine, crawls into his bed and knocks out almost before his head hits the pillow, only a little upset to be alone.

=

Bruce comes to pick him up the next morning. He wakes, and dresses, and tries to fix his hair, which had dried in his sleep and was now completely unmanageable. He knocks tentatively on Donna’s door, and when there’s no answer, opens it with caution. Her bed is neatly made, while her vanity looks like a bomb went off. She must’ve skipped out early. He tries Gar next, but his room is empty too. He manages to catch Wally in the kitchen, who bades him a cheerful goodbye before vanishing in a golden blur.

“So long, Flasher,” he says to the empty air. And fixes his hair and collar from the backdraft.

Bruce hasn’t pulled up yet, so Dick locks up and sits on the porch, ready for a long wait. He’s tired, and sore, and his stomach is moving around inside him like a butterfly in a jar. It’s going to be so weird when they all meet up next week. It’s going to be so screwed up. Dick habitually isn’t anxious. He has no reason to be; he’s always found it easy to get along with people.

He puts his head in his hands and exhales heavily. Okay. He can fix this. They just need to talk about it. Maybe he can get them all down to the spot and they can hash it out together. Before they know it Wally will be putting him in a headlock over his jukebox picks and Donna will be laughing and laughing in his ear.

And then maybe they’ll all forget that he debased himself. Logically, Dick knows that gays and lesbians exist. He’s met a few of them, liked them, and not seen anything different in them. The knowledge that he might be gay - or like men, is horrifically anxiety inducing. Did he force anything last night? Gar had said he’d never done anything with a guy before. Or something like that. What’s he going to do? He can’t tell _Bruce_. How would that even go? _Hi Bruce,_ he thinks, _remember last month when we arrested Gino Falcone, and when we kicked in the window he was riding his bodyguard? I’m a fruit, too._

Hmm. Maybe he could workshop that a little more.

“Fuck,” he groans.

“Better wash your mouth out with soap, Rob,” Roy says. Dick jumps.

Roy flops down next to him, sprawling lazily so that his sneaker knocks into Dick’s boot. “Dear old dad is late, is he?”

“Can it, Roy,” Dick says, “You know the Dad joke got real old the first time you said it.”

“You’re right, he is real old,” Roy laughs, “No wait, that’s terrible. I can do better than that. Can we just redact that whole joke and I’ll prep some new material for next weekend?”

Dick snorts. The tightness in his chest is uncoiling, soothed by Roy sitting so close and smiling at him. “Your comedy routine hasn’t improved since you were twelve.” He _likes_ Roy. No matter what, through all the weirdness, Roy is there with a god-awful joke. He likes that they’re the same in a lot of ways. Likes having someone on the team with no powers, someone who just gets it. He can feel himself smiling wider, feeling better. Roy’s let him down before, sure, but never over something that actually mattered.

“And the stick up your ass is as present as ever,” Roy says, and abruptly stops smiling. Dick goes all cold. “Oh,” Roy scrambles, “I didn’t mean…not like that, you know. I mean, last night…I don’t know what I’m saying. Sorry.”

Dick puts his head back in his hands. They sit in terse silence, until Roy nudges his boot again. “Hey,” Roy starts, “I think it’s fine. I mean…look; you’re my best friend. And if you’re - you know - then that’s - you know.” He lapses into silence.

“I don’t know if I am,” Dick blurts, surprising himself. He glances at Roy, who looks just as taken aback as he feels. “I mean, at least not all the way. I like girls.” 

“Trust me, Boy Wonder, I know. I see ‘em all over you.”

Dick scrubs at his hot cheek, “Quit it.” It is true though. They all get hollered at when they’re spotted, but Dick is not only Robin, but also Bruce Wayne’s ward.

“Rob-in, Rob-in, Rob-in,” Roy chants. Dick shoves him. Roy shoves him back and moves into ruffling his hair, laughing all the while. Dick struggles halfheartedly as it devolves into a partial headlock.

“Alright, I give, I give!” Dick cries, batting Roy’s hands away. He pulls back, but not before giving Dick one final squeeze. His palm curves into the join of Dick’s neck and shoulder. It feels very warm and solid.

Dick looks at him.

“Do you like men?” he quietly asks, “Last night-“

“No,” Roy says, very quickly. “I’m into chicks. You know that.” He moves his hand away.

Dick doesn’t know what to say to that. He thought - Well, he thought, didn’t he? He didn’t really _know._ But still, the way Roy had looked at him. He feels like he swallowed a very large, very cold stone. But Roy had wanted it - had wanted _him._ Had even cried out for it.

“Are you serious?” Dick asks. His voice comes out a little wobblier than he’d like.

Roy looks at him for a long time. Dick looks right back.

“Yeah,” Roys says, “I am.” 

He really doesn’t know what to say to that. Dick gets up, grabs his bag, and starts walking down the drive. 

“Oh, come _on_ ,” Roy says, “It’s just not like that for me! Dick, come back here.”

“So it’s just like that with Wally then?” Dick’s boots hit the gravel, and he spins round. Roy is looking somewhere over his shoulder like he’s wishing he was anyplace else. “Yeah?” Dick asks, “Is it?”

Roy opens his mouth and something in Dick twists. “Just leave it. Just…leave it alone, Roy.” He feels numb, and alone, and a little dizzy, like the world has tilted on its axis and he’s the only one who hasn’t figured it out. He looks down at his ankle boots; tan against the white stone making up the driveway. _What’s wrong with you,_ he thinks, _why’d you have to change on me now?_

Roy doesn’t call out to him again.

Ten minutes later, Bruce picks Dick up from the gates.

“How was your weekend?” he asks.

“Great,” Dick says, and smiles, “I had a really good time.”

**Author's Note:**

> let's chat.


End file.
